


when on high

by pettigrace



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Character Study, M/M, Mesopotamia, Mesopotamian Mythology - Freeform, Mythology References, Other, Religious Content, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Sumerian religion - Freeform, Tower of Babel, basically crowley is at fault for the tower of babel, he also has a mesopotamian cult following, hell yeah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-31 11:46:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19425343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pettigrace/pseuds/pettigrace
Summary: Eden wasn't the only time they were to Mesopotamia, Aziraphale recalls.





	when on high

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to my first Good Omens fanfiction!
> 
> As I am not only very fascinated by Angels in general, but also have a Bachelor's degree in Religious Studies with a focus on Indian and Mesopotamian Religions, it wasn't too far off that I would create a connection. (Though, in fact, they _are_ there already. I'm merely bringing in the _Good Omens_ factor here.)
> 
> This is in no way meant as an "Everything is Christianity in the end"-story, but moreso to depict the ways religions influence one another and they way Christianity does _appropriate_ other cultures a lot of times. There's a lot of references to different cultures that I will explain in the end notes, but it is mostly Mesopotamian. (I fear the notes will end up longer than the story, whelp)
> 
> As to the Ineffable Husbands, you can read their relationship _however you want_! I have kept it as ambigously as Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman have done it in the novel. (Meaning, they are clearly in love and dating but nobody says it out loud, Hell yeah, Hallelujah and Amen!)
> 
> You will have to forgive me if the tone of this fic is not accurate - it’s been five years till I read the book and I have watched the show only in German so far (I'm still missing the last two episodes, actually), so I have no idea how they speak in English, whoops. I hope you enjoy it, anyways!
> 
> The title is from the Babylonian creation myth “ _Enuma eliš_ ”, which establishes Marduk in his position as the city god of Babylon.

Aziraphale has always - no, that is not correct, he has been around for too long a time to relate to an ‘always’ in the way that humans do - been… intrigued by religions. And that is not caused by the fact that a lot of human beings have considered _him_ to be a part of a couple of those, mind you. Yet, he finds himself curious as to how the mortals have come to view him and his brethren; especially the kind of belief systems that are quite different than others. Forgotten cultures, hidden away in lands of history, those are what it is about!

It is even more intriguing when it concerns places he has actually been to (though at this point, he fears there isn’t much left of this planet that he hasn’t seen yet), those that the religions - the ones that speak about witnessed events - included, even if they only do so sparsely. There is a whole accumulation of stories from those parts of the world that are rarely passed on, unfortunately. It’s a pity, really, considering that’s where it all began!

He is quite glad that a few of these cultures and belief systems have resurfaced and reached new minds. Think, for example, of what the humans have come to call Buddhism! Siddharta, a lovely fellow (he was kind, albeit not very talkative outside of his sermons), has been right, after all: to humans, existence _is_ misery - just think of public transportation! He himself, he has had it moderately easy: for eons, Aziraphale has only ever followed one way of living, such as all angels do. Then came Crowley and changed him, opened his eyes (all of them), and turned him into a human, in a way. Of course, he still has his powers. And then, he truly does not understand how humans ever make decisions if they cannot consider all their options for a decade beforehand. They do not have it easy.

This interest in religions is what makes him pay closer attention to the latest book that has come across his bookstore. While he does give them a once over as they arrive, it does not guarantee that he immediately inspects them further right away. Usually he stores them away for the right moment, waiting until he feels a calling from them. These kinds of books, though, he simply cannot put away.

And this one, specifically, reminds him of old times.

He remembers thousands of years ago, when they were in Ancient Babylon (a lovely town, especially those gardens), and the inhabitants were building a temple dedicated to their city god (Aziraphale had never met the fellow, unfortunately, but he found it very logical - if a god only had a flock of humans to watch, they would be more attentive. There would not be a single angel who only pretended to fulfill his duties, he imagines.). Crowley, too, had found it fascinating (oh, the blue colour of the city’s gate; so vibrant and beautiful, how they’d hoped it would find its way onto the walls of the temple as well), but as he is a demon, he could not keep silent as they watched the humans work.

“Oi!” Said Crowley, drawing the attention of a few of them. “Wee bit small, dontcha think? What’s your-- what’s his name again?” He wanted to know, turning back to Aziraphale as he snapped his fingers. “Angel, what’s he called? The fella with the--”

It was in times like these that he regretted ever interacting with the Serpent of Eden (how young they were). Begrudgingly, he muttered, “Marduk.”

“Ahh! Marduk,” Crowley repeats, grinning widely. Then he turns back to the humans below them. “What’d Marduk say if he saw the little ol’ tower you’re building him, eh?”

A mutter spread out amongst the humans, and Aziraphale could see why Crowley has been the one chosen to tempt Eve. It is so easy to him, one sentence and his work is done. Aziraphale cannot imagine that it is like this for every demon. (Not that he would admit it, but in the past centuries, he came to the conclusion that perhaps it _had_ been the right thing that Crowley has done, making the humans eat from the Tree of Knowledge. There was an author back in the late 19th century Germany who wrote a play on how _keeping_ knowledge from someone would only bring misery. A rather clever fellow, that Frank.) The Babylonians took the cue then, scurriedly analyzing what this stranger meant, and then if he was correct. Was their temple too small? It was a horrid thought, the idea that they could disappoint their god.

And of course that fear won in the end, as it always does. The humans built and built, motivated and supervised by a snake that came along the way (a literal one, Crowley had assumed his original form again), eager to meet Heaven some day - Aziraphale’s assurance that that was _not_ possible completely ignored. He was a random bystander of no importance, and at a later point imprisoned by the King of that time for that very reason. He tried to warn them, fearing that they would exhaust a whole line of people in the process of achieving nonsense. And yet… it wasn’t fruitful. It was Him, in the end, who took care of the dilemma. Struck them down with one movement and, because the Father did not know the circumstances and thought it was an action against _Him_ , the humans were punished. While the planet (and so Aziraphale) has come to appreciate the many languages that came to be by now, the first few weeks of their appearance were quite chaotic. So chaotic, in fact, that he could slip away unnoticed. The humans were so preoccupied by their confusion and sadness at clearly disappointing a god (though in their mind it was a different one), standing between the ruins of their temple that would soon be remembered falsely by many.

To this day, Crowley prides himself in this achievement - after all, a single sentence of his created the magnitude of human languages. And that the ruins still show paintings of snakes next to the Sirruš, the Babylonian dragons, certainly does not help his ego. “All the misunderstandings,” he would say, beaming. “There’s lil else ya side coulda done to make me happier.” 

It is not so much that Crowley is at fault for any snake cults in Mesopotamia. In fact, Aziraphale is convinced that there must have been something of the kind established before, or else there would not have been a single person who had paid special attention to the serpent, most likely. The mere appearance of one random snake has not guaranteed that it would find its way into the decor of the temple. Of course, Crowley is immune to his reasoning.

Now, however, as Aziraphale skims the contents of this book, he realized that there might be another dimension to what he had considered a fact. It’s a chronic of Mesopotamian gods and goddesses - of the kind that lists every single one of them, no matter how much information is known of them. There’s many entries that consist only of a name (mentioned in a poem or epic), others have cross-references to other gods. Just like many of his brethren have chosen plenty of names throughout the centuries, so have the Ancient Mesopotamians. A lot of times, the connection between seemingly unrelated entries is obscure. Other entries have pictures, too, either photographs that archeologists took on sight (the wonderful Ištar has quite a number of those) or drawings that those clever humans have recreated.

One of those is what makes Aziraphale stop.

There was a time, when all of this was new to the two of them, living among humans, that they’ve turned back to their true forms more often than they do nowadays. To Aziraphale, personally, it was a way of trying to stay connected to what he thought was his true self, and the way things were supposed to be (or so he thought). Nowadays, they barely leave their human forms behind; for once because it has truthfully become quite comfortable in this body, and then to demonstrate the way he relates to the humans. Sometimes he feels more human than angel, and while he is certain it is not exactly the same for Crowley, there might be something of the like playing into this for him.

And Crowley, with this clever head of his, has always been one step ahead of him. In the early days, there has been many a time that his demonic friend mixed up his outward appearances. Aziraphale has always been able to recognize him (of course he has) and found it fascinating - sometimes he wore just a snake head on his human body, other times he turned it around. Even experimented with what humans traditionally view as female! (Though, of course, celestial beings would not even know such a thing as gender if it were not for the humans. It is just a happenstance as to how they choose to present - as mentioned, a factor of comfortability.) Just as it always came easy to Crowley to tempt the humans, the same seemed to be the case when it came to his appearance. Aziraphale has always been stuck between two appearances, so to speak (though he did shuffle things up a couple of times), due to what felt natural.

He has been present for almost all of Crowley’s experiments, and while it was not for the entire duration of each of them, he’s familiar enough to recognize them. As he does now with the drawing of Ningišzida that is looking up at him. It isn’t an exact depiction of Crowley’s form, of course, but Aziraphale has come to always take a closer look when it concerns serpents of any kind. It’s a symbol that many belief systems have adopted nowadays, that of the caduceus - two snakes entwined around a staff. He recalls that it is commonly known as a symbol of health currently.

Fueled by curiosity, Aziraphale takes upon reading the small introduction to the god. Originally considered a god of Heaven, he transformed into one of the Underworld and became to symbolize it in general. Another aspect, apparently, is vegetation (and Aziraphale cannot stop the image of Crowley’s flat, filled to the brim with healthy plants, from coming to his mind).

And then, as if he was not already filled by a slight idea, his eyes fall onto the translation of the god’s name - which, apparently, can also be read as that of a female, though it does not help the case - and he does a double take. 

_Thorkild Jacobsen translates “Ningišzida” as Sumerian for "lord of the good tree"._

Aziraphale remembers Eden, clearly so. It was his first interaction with Crowley, specifically, and the first time that he has done something on his own accord (and he remembers the glee in Crowley’s face as he told him about giving away the Sword; it may be the fact why that memory does not fill him with anxiety but rather with affection), so it was quite memorable. And many humans remember it, too, though of course for reasons that concern _them._ For them, what counts is the aftermath of _Crowley_ ’s actions: how the humans changed once he has made Eve bite into the apple. So, naturally, not many remember the full name of the Tree. Every so often, Aziraphale stumbles upon a short version of it - the Tree of Knowledge.

But here, in this list of Mesopotamian gods, he finds another version of it. With the full name being the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, it is not too far-fetched that along the centuries (millennia, even), some have come to remember it differently. There is no doubt that this _Good Tree_ is the very same.

There is little else on this particular god, but as he carries on, he finds references to him at other points, too. It appears that Crowley has been back to Mesopotamia more often than Aziraphale has been (he has frequented it more often in the past few centuries as he grew closer to the demon and he fears it might be nostalgia for the times they have been there together) because this Ningišzida must have been present at a point between Eden and the Tower of Babel: both under this name and another one, Niraḫ, he fits into the genealogy before Marduk. That does explain Crowley’s familiarity with the city god (though, if Aziraphale does remember correctly now, he had also grown to wider popularity throughout the years and with the expansion of the Babylonian Empire), at least.

It is curious, really, that the demon should stay quiet about such an achievement, Aziraphale thinks as he reaches for his telephone. Or, for that matter, that he does not boast with the fact that he has come back to the Land between Rivers before he has - Crowley enjoys competitions, and travelling is one of those to him.

“Angel!” The demon greets as he picks up the phone (a habit he has come to: while there used to be a time where Aziraphale needed to listen to the voicemail first, Crowley is nowadays picking up quite quickly), excitement written into his voice. “How much trouble are we in now, eh?”

“You tell me, my dear,” Aziraphale begins with a click of his tongue. “Say, does the name…” He flips back a few pages to find it written down again, and he is almost certain that his pronunciation is faulty, but he knows Crowley will piece it together. “ _Ningišzida_ sound familiar, by chance?”

There’s an audible gulp on the other end of the line, a sound that was always promises an interesting story. Carefully, Aziraphale closes the chronic and sets it aside before leaning back in his armchair. It certainly must have been _his_ side who has sent it his way, because this truly seems to be a blessing.

**Author's Note:**

> Here is an explanation for the many references I have squeezed into this little fic (again, pardon my English, most of my researches have been done in German but I hope you understand anyways): 
> 
> I think y'all are familiar with the concept of **Buddhism** but here's a refresher: The first Buddha (the very **Siddharta Gautama** that Aziraphale references) discovered that (human) **life is suffering** and suffering only. Nirvāṇa is the absence of suffering, aka what Buddhists are trying to achieve.
> 
>  **The Hanging Gardens of Babylon** are one of the Seven Wonders of the World. They were, like, really pretty.
> 
> The city god of Babylon was **Marduk** , who later became the head of the whole Babylonian pantheon. He's quite badass, actually.
> 
> I don't think I need to explain the whole **Eden** business and Eve to y'all, do I?
> 
> The German play that Aziraphale mentions is **"Frühlings Erwachen"** by Frank Wedekind. You may know the musical based on it: Spring Awakening. There's many hidden messages and many topics that are being discussed, but that's the connection Aziraphale is drawing here. Feel free to ask me about more on it, I'm an expert.
> 
> Aziraphale's memory is a little off here: the Temple the Babylonians built ( **Esaĝila** ) and the ziggurat ( **Etemenanki** ) (both built between 14th and 9th century BCE) are two different things, in fact, but they _are_ connected, so it's a mistake scholars do, too, sometimes. The latter is what is commonly considered the building that inspired the story of the **Tower of Babel**. Ziggurats are pretty similar to pyramids aesthetic-wise and were part of a complex of buildings connected to religious acts all throughout Ancient Mesopotamia. 
> 
> There's many **snake cults** spread throughout Mesopotamia. My former professor is an expert on those and if she knew I wrote this story, she'd either praise me or bite off my head. Hard to tell with her.
> 
> (Inanna) **Ištar** is a very popular goddess of Ancient Mesopotamia. She's in charge of all kinds of duality and the gate to Babylon is called the **Ištar Gate**. It was built way later than the temple and the ziggurat, but at the same time where both of those were restored by King Nebukadnezar II. (6th century BCE) after their initial destruction.
> 
> Everything on **Ningišzida** is almost verbatim from his Wikipedia entry. I could not access my usual source of material for Mesopotamian gods at the moment, sadly.
> 
> I think that got all of the references? (How the hell did I squeeze so many into this little ficlet?) I hope I did not overwhelm you with this stuff, haha.
> 
>  **Please leave a comment!**  
>  If you liked this, come check out my [tumblr](https://joanthangroff.tumblr.com/post/185889982733/im-reopening-my-writing-commissions-as-always) or talk to me on [twitter](http://twitter.com/Ll4MDUNBAR).


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